David Walsh Blog

• By David WalshSeptember 26, 2022

  Set Brave as Default Browser from Command Line

  I've been a huge fan of the Brave web browser for years. They're crypto-friendly, provide native ad-blocking features, and even provide Tor integration. Whenever I set up new systems, I automate Brave as the default browser.You can use the following shell command to set...

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• By David WalshSeptember 21, 2022

  CSS :autofill

  Autofilling HTML input elements is a frequent user action that can drastically improve user experience. Hell, we all autofill for our passwords and address information. But what control do we have when input elements have been autofilled?To add custom CSS styles to inputs whose...

• By David WalshAugust 29, 2022

  Monitor Events and Function Calls via Console

  Despite having worked on the very complex Firefox for a number of years, I'll always love plain old console.log debugging. Logging can provide an audit trail as events happen and text you can share with others. Did you know that chrome provides monitorEvents and...

• By David WalshAugust 22, 2022

  CSS :out-of-range

  One aspect of web development I've always loathed was working with forms. Form elements have been traditionally difficult to style due to OS and browser differences, and validation can be a nightmare. Luckily the native HTML APIs added methods for improving the form validation situation.With...

• By David WalshAugust 19, 2022

  git Force Push

  Rebasing is a frequent task for anyone using git. We sometimes use rebasing to branch our code from the last changes or even just to drop commits from a branch.Oftentimes when trying to push after a rebase, you'll see something like the following:Commonly developers...

• By David WalshAugust 9, 2022

  Specify Node Versions with .nvmrc

  I've heavily promoted nvm, a Node.js version manager, over the years. Having a tool to manage multiple versions of a language interpreter has been so useful, especially due to the complexity of Node.js package management.One tip I like to give new developers is adding a...

• By David WalshAugust 8, 2022

  How to Inject a Global with Web Extensions in Manifest V3

  For those of you not familiar with the world of web extension development, a storm is brewing with Chrome. Google will stop support for manifest version 2, which is what the vast majority of web extensions use. Manifest version 3 sees many changes but the largest...

• By David WalshAugust 2, 2022

  How Plugins Enhance The WYSIWYG Editing Experience

  Image by JK_Studio from PixabayWYSIWYG editors are one of the core components of any content management system (CMS). A well-coded, feature-filled WYSIWYG HTML editor can distinguish between a CMS users love and one they can't stand. While all WYSIWYG editors have a set of...

• By David WalshJuly 26, 2022

  JavaScript Event.defaultPrevented

  Whether you started with the old on_____ property or addEventListener, you know that events drive user experiences in modern JavaScript. If you've worked with events, you know that preventDefault() and stopPropagation() are frequently used to handle events. One thing you probably didn't know: there's a defaultPrevented...

• By David WalshJuly 18, 2022

  7 Ways to Optimize Performance for Your WordPress Site

  The vast majority of blogs, news websites, and information websites run on WordPress. While the WordPress developer team and community do their best to ensure wordPress is performant, there are a number of practices you can implement to keep your site blazing fast. Let's...